Preview — Vaporized
by Robert Tercek

Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World

Digital technology has overturned entire industries and irrevocably altered the way we live and work. But the changes are far from over: now, tech is set to transform our planet and society in once unimaginable ways.

In his groundbreaking new book Vaporized, Robert Tercek takes us inside the world's largest cultural and economic transformation since the Industrial RevolutioDigital technology has overturned entire industries and irrevocably altered the way we live and work. But the changes are far from over: now, tech is set to transform our planet and society in once unimaginable ways.

In his groundbreaking new book Vaporized, Robert Tercek takes us inside the world's largest cultural and economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution, and explains what it means for consumers, employers, and policymakers.

Tercek does for digital business theory what Malcolm Gladwell has done for sociology, translating a complex subject into approachable and relevant terms. Insightful and optimistic, Tercek presents a practical blueprint for survival that no business leader, from Fortune 500 CEO to small startup owner, can afford to ignore....more

Community Reviews

The only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars is that I don't see it becoming classic or imagine myself re-reading it ever again. But it's a timely relevant read in 2017 and the author asks all the right questions about digital transformation of our world. It gives a bit of history of what industries vaporized/ were transformed by digital, it gives an excellent summary of what works and what doesn't work when you are going digital. It gives some insights into what happens next (with some predThe only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars is that I don't see it becoming classic or imagine myself re-reading it ever again. But it's a timely relevant read in 2017 and the author asks all the right questions about digital transformation of our world. It gives a bit of history of what industries vaporized/ were transformed by digital, it gives an excellent summary of what works and what doesn't work when you are going digital. It gives some insights into what happens next (with some predictions already a reality in 2017 - the book was written in 2015 and some still sounding impossible and "not during my lifetime").This book gave me a new angle to look at different industries and helped me make some really important decisions.(and then the last chapter about brain was LOVE even though I think Tim Urban still explained it so much cooler)...more

This book revolves around one of the today's most important topics; automation will improve life while making jobs obsolete. Therefore, the success of future generations depends on their ability to perform jobs that cannot be replaced by computers. This requires to some extent to reform the educational system, but most effective is to educate oneself by reading books like this. People must learn to do what computers cannot do.

Interesting facts in this book:- Today, the data a business generatesThis book revolves around one of the today's most important topics; automation will improve life while making jobs obsolete. Therefore, the success of future generations depends on their ability to perform jobs that cannot be replaced by computers. This requires to some extent to reform the educational system, but most effective is to educate oneself by reading books like this. People must learn to do what computers cannot do.

Interesting facts in this book:- Today, the data a business generates and collect is its primary asset. - We will produce 1,7 Megabits of data per second per 2020 due to "IoT"- 3 chemical states of information: solid (books), liquid (internet) and vapor (smart phones = Fast moving, free and constantly changing)- Anything that can be vaporized with software, will be vaporized by digital counterparts; objects, companies, industries....more

The inordinately handsome Robert Tercek has designed and created interactive experiences on every digital platform, including satellite television, game consoles, broadband Internet and mobile networks, launched startup ventures and also served in executive leadership roles at major media companies, most recently as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, and previously as Senior Vice President of Digit‘Ephemeralization, digitization, dematerialization, and virtualization.’

The inordinately handsome Robert Tercek has designed and created interactive experiences on every digital platform, including satellite television, game consoles, broadband Internet and mobile networks, launched startup ventures and also served in executive leadership roles at major media companies, most recently as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, and previously as Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Sony Pictures Entertainment and earlier as Creative Director at MTV: Music Television. He has launched the first multi-channel television satellite in Asia, the first animated multimedia games for computers, the first Java-based multiplayer games on the Web, and the first streaming video on mobile devices and has provided strategic insight and advice to many companies, including Nokia, Motorola, AMD, Sony Computer Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting, PBS, CNN, Interpublic Group, and Reed Exhibitions. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Creative Visions Foundation in Malibu, California. It difficult to believe that VAPORIZED is his first book but he explains why he wrote it: ‘I believe that everyone on Earth can benefit from knowledge that is systematically harvested, organized, refined, and exploited for the purpose of making the economy and the rest of society more efficient. In the process, we have a chance to overhaul outdated government bureaucracies, crusty rules and regulations, old-fashioned education systems, and other relics from the industrial past. That’s what this book is about.

Readers may approach this book with trepidation – lack of adequate information about the current state of technology taking on a threatening form – but Robert explains it all in such an accessible though brilliant manner. This is a book everyone should read and see the positive aspects of dematerialization as a key to our survival and not our obsolescence.

In his excellent Introduction Robert states, ‘Nicholas Negroponte (who provides a vivid Foreword for this book) founded the MIT Media Lab to conduct interdisciplinary research into media, technology, science, and design. There, Buckminster Fuller’s coinage got an upgrade from “ephemeralization” to “digitization,” a feat of linguistic finesse that locates the phenomenon squarely in the realm of the computer. Negroponte, the director of the Media Lab, urged us to “move bits, not atoms,” and his book Being Digital conveyed the implications of a dematerialized society to a general readership. Since the publication of Negroponte’s book in 1993, we’ve seen many of his predictions come true: broadband Internet, smart objects, artificial intelligence, and ultracheap, pocketable supercomputers sporting novel interfaces. Today these breakthroughs are taken for granted by a generation that grew up with YouTube, smartphones, selfies, Siri, and Wikipedia, but there was a time not too long ago when they were bold — even audacious — ideas….What exactly are these bits that replace atoms? Software. Most recently, the computer networking industry has adopted a term called “software-defined” to describe what is coming next. The term is trendy in the information technology field: software-defined networking, software-defined storage, software-defined data centers, software-defined clouds, software-defined everything. This is a major tech trend that will replace stubbornly inflexible purpose-built systems embodied in physical hardware with highly flexible systems written in software. Software-defined architectures are adaptable. The entire system operates in real-time, responding to incoming data, as needs change and as demand ebbs and flows. In this term, “software-defined,” we capture some of the essence of the twenty-first-century society — not just because a growing part of our economy rides on top of digital information networks, but also because the rules that shape software are beginning to redefine the rules of everything that touches it, up to and including the rules that govern society…This idea, “doing more with less by replacing physical stuff with digital information-as-a-service,” began with networking technology but now touches just about every industry imaginable. What is being transformed? Manufacturing, distribution, retail sales, marketing and media, and the very concept of buying and owning physical products. That’s what we’re going to examine in this book. I believe that the phrase “Do more with less” is not just a hollow slogan; it is a global strategic imperative. Doing more with less is the right thing to do. Not only is this a valid choice in a world constrained by finite resources; it also happens to be the best business strategy in an economy that is, and will continue to be, defined by software. From this point forward, by leveraging ubiquitous telecommunications networks and computer technology to make efficient use of abundant information resources, all of human society — not just companies, but also our civic institutions, educational establishments, and governing bodies — really will be able to do far more with less. Our economy will become more productive, and we will all be collectively much richer while consuming physical resources more wisely, making better use of both raw materials and finished goods. These are big claims, so what makes me so confident about them? What’s the secret? Information.’

This is only an aperitif for the feast of enlightenment contained in this fascinating book – a book everyone should read – now!

On the surface, there is little content in this book that even the casual observer does not know. Certain industries that were once powerful and profitable have vanished or been rendered into players in a niche market. Over ten years ago I reviewed a business book that contained high praise for the Blockbuster company and the efficient way it was organized and managed. Of course, it no longer exists, a point made in this book. Other examples are record stores and bookstores in physical form. Re On the surface, there is little content in this book that even the casual observer does not know. Certain industries that were once powerful and profitable have vanished or been rendered into players in a niche market. Over ten years ago I reviewed a business book that contained high praise for the Blockbuster company and the efficient way it was organized and managed. Of course, it no longer exists, a point made in this book. Other examples are record stores and bookstores in physical form. Residents of towns and cities that once had powerful manufacturing bases have seen those jobs vanish, leaving empty, decaying and rusting hulks in their place. Tercek goes beyond the basics and delves into the deeper megatrends that are rapidly altering the world economy in general and specifically the American economy. He operates on two basic premises that simply cannot be refuted. The first is:

“What can be digitized will be digitized.”

This simply means that every item of data will be converted into content stored on a computer and will be analyzed. The primary example of this is music, where very little is now stored on and played from a physical medium. However, the point must be made that analog forms of music, even vinyl, are making a bit of a comeback. The second is:

“What can be performed by electronic devices will be performed by electronic devices.”

This means that if it is possible for a robot to safely perform a task, it will be doing that task. The consequences of this are enormous, all that is needed is to examine the potential for self-driving cars and trucks. There is little doubt that roads will be safer if humans are no longer behind the wheel and there will be fuel savings as well. Approximately two million people are employed as truck drivers in the United States and it is likely that nearly all of them will lose their jobs in a very short time. Perhaps only a matter of months. While these two trends are almost certainly inevitable, the only hope for many businesses to survive is to follow the trend rather than ignore it. Or what is even more detrimental, fight it. Tercek strongly puts forward positions that explain what can be done to reduce the social cost of what is happening. He also presents arguments on both sides regarding what the new levels of “normal” unemployment will be. As a book that explains the inexorable forces that are rapidly moving society, reading it can either make you optimistic or pessimistic about the future. Whatever your reaction, Tercek will get you thinking about what your response should be and your role and that of your organization in what is very quickly becoming the new reality. This book is a must read if you want to be even close to prepared for the future. ...more

this is my first book from this author, his writing flows nice and easy for someone to understand. this book has some really good information and some that I just do not understand how or why it would disappear. Such as the case of the doctors, we all use doctors in some form like going to the doctor's office or even the hospital and how would this disappear when we all need them and using a vital doctor wouldnot be the samething in most cases. What comes around goes around we all heard that saythis is my first book from this author, his writing flows nice and easy for someone to understand. this book has some really good information and some that I just do not understand how or why it would disappear. Such as the case of the doctors, we all use doctors in some form like going to the doctor's office or even the hospital and how would this disappear when we all need them and using a vital doctor wouldnot be the samething in most cases. What comes around goes around we all heard that saying sometime in our lives and it does work in fact. Then when talking aboutthe big corporations disappearing later on truly as a consumer I do not think that would be even possible because some of the bigger corporations are here to stay....more

I loved this book! So much eye-opening information laid out with passion and logic, as if author Robert Tercek was thinking the whole time "how can I get you to see what I'm seeing?" Well, he did. And I'm glad I read it a year after it came out. Because even though it's very of-the-moment, I was able to see that many of the things Tercek predicts here have come to pass.This book should be taught in every company, start-up incubator, and business school out there - anyone who intends to run a busI loved this book! So much eye-opening information laid out with passion and logic, as if author Robert Tercek was thinking the whole time "how can I get you to see what I'm seeing?" Well, he did. And I'm glad I read it a year after it came out. Because even though it's very of-the-moment, I was able to see that many of the things Tercek predicts here have come to pass.This book should be taught in every company, start-up incubator, and business school out there - anyone who intends to run a business sometime during the next 30 years. It's essential thinking. Oh, and the last chapter on whole brain mapping has inspired me to take better care of my health so I can be in the first wave of people uploaded to the internet....more

This book shows how digital technology “vaporizes” businesses and products and how Google, Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Uber and Airbnb vaporize existing business models. It's a basic read if you already know a lot about digital business models and how software and Mobile are eating the world.

Robert Tercek invents the digital future. His book VAPORIZED was selected as the 2016 International Book of the Year by GetAbstract. He has launched satellite networks, the first video on mobile phones, multimedia games, and live interactive learning programs. He provides strategic insight to Turner Broadcasting, InterPublic Group, PBS and other firms. In the past he served in executive leadershipRobert Tercek invents the digital future. His book VAPORIZED was selected as the 2016 International Book of the Year by GetAbstract. He has launched satellite networks, the first video on mobile phones, multimedia games, and live interactive learning programs. He provides strategic insight to Turner Broadcasting, InterPublic Group, PBS and other firms. In the past he served in executive leadership at MTV, Sony Pictures and most recently as President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. An enthusiastic advocate of the future of media and entertainment, Robert is a highly in-demand keynote speaker....more

“In its quest to organize the world’s information, Google has scoured vast troves of data to amass the greatest accumulation of information assets on the planet, including the billions of search queries on google.com and YouTube and the billions of interactions on Android, the dominant operating system for most mobile devices. Google also controls an ever-growing index of the world’s websites and the browsing history of more than 2 billion users, three types of maps of the Earth’s surface and traffic patterns, a real-time list of trending topics, the largest archive of discussions in Usenet groups, the entire contents of 20 million books, a huge collection of photographs, the largest collection of video on the planet, the largest online email repository, even the largest archive of DNA data.”
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